AMD Plans 64-bit ARM for Communications in 2014

SAN FRANCISCO — Advanced Micro Devices sketched out its 2014 road map for embedded processors, the first to include an ARM-based SoC.

AMD's Hierofalcon will pack four to eight 64-bit ARM Cortex A57 CPU cores along with 10GBase-KR Ethernet and PCI Express Gen 3 links, targeting communications and storage systems. The 28nm device will go up against Intel's 22nm Rangeley, an Atom-based SoC already shipping and likely to be upgraded by the time the AMD part is ready.

Hierofalcon will come in versions spanning 15 to 30W and support ARM's Trust Zone security implemented on a Cortex A5. AMD would not say whether it will implement the Freedom Fabric acquired with startup SeaMicro that will be used in "Seattle," AMD's ARM-based server SoC shipping next year.

AMD also announced two x86-based embedded processors and its next-generation graphics core all coming in 2014 and made in a 28nm process. The graphics core, called Adelaar, will embedded 2 Gbytes of GDDR5 memory, have 76 Gbyte/s memory throughput and ship early next year.

A G-series embedded part called Steppe Eagle will use two to four enhanced Jaguar x86 cores and a Radeon 8000 GPU, and come in versions dissipating as little as 5W. A high-end R-series part called Bald Eagle will be AMD's first embedded part using the GPU/CPU coherent memory approach defined by the Heterogeneous Systems Architecture Foundation. It will use two to four enhanced Steamroller x86 cores and a Radeon 9000 GPU.

The Steppe Eagle part will fit into sockets of existing G-Series chips launched in April, offering better performance per watt, making it "easier for customers to absorb," said Nathan Brookwood, principal of Insight64 of Saratoga, Calif. "64-bit ARM in embedded is a big deal, but I am disappointed they are not providing details on the Freedom Fabric," he said.

@Jay: Good points on how AMD's Hierofalcon is ahead of Intel's Rangeley in some ways --and needs to be since it will have to compete with a Rageley 2 late next year.

And agreed, as long as the core roughly meets the perf/watt needs and more importnatly is the ISA the OEM/user sw is written for, it's fine. Much of the differentiation is increasingly in SoC peripherals.

@Junko, That is the multi-million dollar question. Probably the development cost of a new x86 internal core did not result in an advantage in terms of performance/cost/power of an off the shelf ARM core. I am sure the AMD brass did their homework before making the switch.

This does validate what the ARM camp has been claiming in terms of architectural simplicity of ARMv8 architecture and its inherent advantage in building low power processors.

My guess is that AMD's plan is the following:

- Continue to push x86 based processors at the high end of the performance arena in the server and enterprise

- Push ARM based SoCs into markets where AMD has not had much success to begin with - this includes the embedded market as validated by the hiero-falcon announcement and low power servers using the freedom-fabric.

- Integrate their ARM and ATI graphics technology to gain a foothold in the lucrative mobile and eventually ultra-mobile segments.

Reasonable thinking in my mind as x86 has not had success in the lower two arenas inspite of Intel trying for so long.

@Tarra, yes, in theory, AMD giving up on "all the advantage of the established ecosystem around x86" does seem to indicate that they must have found something more compelling in ARM. The question is "what"?

I often ended up with Freescale even though there were better parts around simply because You could whip out a credit card and order dev kits or samples. On a tech note, not sure what AMD gains by going ARM. probably marketing and SW Eco system reasons. The x86 ISA decode penalty is a non issue these days. If AMD can move these parts through commodity channels and make their availability ubiquitous, they have a good chance of a 10 -20% market share. moncler jackets But execution s everything and that seems a big ask for AMD these days. Would also help if they went open with their freedom interconnect.

I wonder if choice of processor cores will be any more important than choice of other components on the SoC. Rangeley does not have the 10G Ethernet backplane interface. On the other hand, Rangeley does have hardware encryption capable of 10Gbps throughput, 5 Gbps in the 15W part. Rangley also has VT-x and no mention was made of hardware virtualization features of the AMD chip's cores. These things could be more important than the processor core, paticularly for software-defined networking.

Sometimes I do forget that we still have AMD. This company is truly trying. My problem has been that AMD has good technology but poor marketing unit. They make nice products but they have a very bad branding strategy.